An Oracle White Paper
February 2012
Four Tips for Effective Online Merchandising:
Strategies for Boosting Conversion Rates
Four Tips for Effective Online Merchandising
Executive Overview
In the following pages, learn about the different online merchandising approaches available
and tips for implementing each on your Website. Along the way, discover how a balanced mix
of these technologies can make your merchandising more relevant and effective on every
page of your site, resulting in increased conversion rates and order values.
Introduction
Getting shoppers to your site is only half the battle. Being able to quickly convert shoppers into
buyers with effective merchandising is what makes leading retailers successful. You want to
engage each individual visitor with the most-relevant content to drive higher conversions and
order values while decreasing abandonment, but predicting what will resonate with each
shopper is difficult.
Effective merchandising lies at the intersection of customer and retailer goals: shoppers must
feel confident that they can find exactly what they need, whereas retailers are striving to
maximize order values. Numerous types of merchandising technologies are available to
marketing teams, each with a different approach to targeting customers. So how do retailers
know which approach to use for converting more browsers into buyers?
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Four Tips for Effective Online Merchandising
Understanding the Options: Merchandising Technologies
Online merchandising refers to the strategy of selecting products to promote and displaying those
products to increase a shopper’s likelihood of purchasing. Merchandising can cover a wide range of
activities, including pricing, product placement, up-sell and cross-sell promotions, and the placement of
related content to convert more customers. The key to being effective is to align your products and
content as closely as possible with the customer’s needs. In other words, deliver the right promotion in
the right place at the right time to the right person.
In the e-commerce world, retailers can take advantage of the interactivity of the online channel, easily accessing customer
information and delivering content relevant to customers’ needs.
In the e-commerce world, retailers can take advantage of the interactivity of the online channel, easily
accessing customer information and delivering content relevant to customers’ needs. Technology
enables retailers to leverage a wealth of available data to target individual shoppers, but delivering the
perfect promotion at all times is no simple task. In fact, there are several technologies and approaches
to merchandising, and no one approach is appropriate in all mileposts on the shopper’s path. To apply
best practices to your site, you must understand the different online merchandising options available
and the benefits of each.
How Many Ways Can You Merchandise?
Most online merchandising technologies operate by presenting a promotion or a piece of content to a
zone on a page in response to a specific trigger, and behind that trigger is a configured rule. However,
beyond that, methods differ considerably. Merchandising technologies and approaches can be grouped
into three general categories, as outlined in the following table:
ONLINE MERCHANDISING APPROACHES
CAMPAIGN-BASED
MERCHANDISING
DESCRIPTION
BENEFITS
DRAWBACKS
Technology providers
include
The campaign-based approach
delivers a unique promotion to
different groups of customers,
based on their predefined audience
segment, as configured by an
online marketer. The definition of
the audience segment can be
based on any combination of profile
data, purchase history, and recent
actions.
Marketers are able to
identify valuable audience
segments based on
historical customer behavior
and can set up promotions
specifically targeted to
those segments. This
results in more-compelling
promotions.
This approach assumes
that past behavior is an
accurate indicator of future
buying needs. It also
assumes that all customers
within an assigned segment
will respond to a similar
promotion.
• Web content
management systems
(CMSs)
• Commerce platforms
• Recommendation
vendors
• CRM vendors
Also known as
• Scenario-based
merchandising
• Behavioral targeting
For example, a campaign-based
zone on a Web page can deliver
one promotion to all males age 25
to 34 who abandoned a shopping
cart in the last week, deliver a
different promotion to all females
age 18 to 25 whose purchases
totaled more than US$500 in the
past year, and deliver a third piece
of content to all other visitors.
Operationally, this
arrangement is manually
intensive to create and
manage. A marketer must
manually configure each
segment, manually assign
the right promotions to each
segment, and place the
promotional zone on each
page throughout the site.
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Four Tips for Effective Online Merchandising
ALGORITHMIC
MERCHANDISING
DESCRIPTION
BENEFITS
DRAWBACKS
Technology providers
include
The algorithmic approach delivers a
unique promotion to each
individual, based on that individual’s
profile information, purchase
history, and recent actions on the
site. Unlike campaign-based
methods, it automatically
determines which of these variables
are most relevant and returns a
promotion based on customers with
similar profiles, purchase histories,
and recent actions. The algorithm
that governs this
microsegmentation and promotion
selection is typically the intellectual
property of the vendor.
Marketers benefit from the
proprietary knowledge of a
third-party firm that
specializes in analyzing the
variables most relevant in
segmenting customers and
predicting the best
promotion. The automated
and self-optimizing nature
of the algorithm means that
marketers can spend more
time reviewing results and
shifting promotional
strategies, rather than
manually configuring each
segment and promotion. IT
also benefits by placing the
strain of the rapid analysis
and promotion-triggering on
a third party.
This approach assumes
that past behavior is an
accurate indicator of future
buying needs.
• Recommendation or
software as a service
(SaaS) vendors
Also known as
• Personalization
• Recommendations
• Black box merchandising
• Behavioral targeting
• Collaborative filtering
For example, take a past customer
who comes to the site with a
historical average order value of
US$100, lives in Oregon, is a sports
enthusiast, and originated from a
paid search listing on Google. The
algorithm analyzes these and other
attributes of the customer to identify
customers with similar
characteristics and present a
“customers like you purchased this”
promotion to help accelerate a sale.
With SaaS models,
merchants and marketers
are reliant upon outside
resources to tune the
algorithm, giving them lessdirect control over what is
going to be presented to
customers. Leading
vendors have addressed
this concern by providing
business users with ways to
guide the recommendation
engine to inform the
automation engine of the
merchant’s knowledge and
strategies.
CONTEXTUAL
MERCHANDISING
DESCRIPTION
BENEFITS
DRAWBACKS
Technology providers
include
The contextual approach delivers a
unique promotion to every
customer, based on that person’s
customer profile and specific
actions on the site, with each
promotion being directly relevant to
the viewer and the content being
viewed at the moment. The
promotion delivered is based on a
rule applied against the set of
content and data related to the
viewed content so that the
promotion is always contextually
relevant to the customer at that
moment.
Marketers can ensure that
the promotion is relevant to
a customer’s expressed
need and intent at that
moment. Because it is
based on the customer’s
selections, independent of
past behavior (unless
added as a trigger), it
reduces the likelihood of
irrelevant promotions based
on anomalies in past
purchase behavior.
This approach is less
effective than other options
when the customer has not
taken any action or has
filtered to a single product.
• Site search and
navigation vendors
• Personalization vendors
Also known as
• Dynamic merchandising
• Content spotlighting
• Searchandizing
For example, take a customer who
comes to the site, searches on
printer, and gets 500 results. In the
contextual zone, the promotion
highlights the top-selling item,
based on sales data, within those
500 results. As the customer filters
the search results with
requirements such as “Ink = color”
(bringing the number of results
down to 300) and “Type = laser”
(bringing the number of results
down to 185), the zone adjusts to
display only the top-selling item
within the new set of 300 and 185
products displayed.
It enables merchants to
leverage both customer and
context to deliver a relevant
experience throughout the
visit.
It also enables the marketer
to set one rule that
automatically adjusts to
remain relevant wherever
the customer is on the site.
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Four Tips for Effective Online Merchandising
Each of these merchandising approaches is distinctly different, with no one method being superior. In
fact, the appropriateness of each option varies widely, based on a customer’s progress within the
shopping experience. This is because visitors’ expectations and intentions change as the visitors move
through your site; which approach is the most effective will change as customers proceed through the
site. So how do you know which method to use and when?
Four Tips for Effective Online Merchandising
The right merchandising approach will differ with the customer’s location on your site. Let’s evaluate
the four primary types of pages your site visitors encounter before reaching the shopping cart—the
home page, search result pages, category browse pages, and product detail pages—and review
guidelines for identifying the best merchandising approach for each.
Tip 1: Keep It Simple on the Home Page
The goal on the home page is to promote your brand and push visitors farther into the site. The home
page is often the starting point for repeat customers as well as for new visitors hoping to address their
current product needs. Unfortunately, you don’t know much about a particular visit at this early stage,
just that the customer knows your brand and that something compelled that person to visit—which
makes delivering a relevant promotion difficult. Therefore, retailers often use this space to highlight
their most popular product lines, the search box, and category options. Depending on the
merchandising approach you have chosen, your strategy for the starting point of the shopping
experience will differ:
•
Campaign-based merchandising. When using this approach, you present specific content to a
defined segment of your visitors. In many ways, this is perfect for your home page. Marketers can
create a campaign for a segment that includes all visitors but whose promotion changes over time.
For example, a retailer could spotlight the most-popular sale items, which change every week. It is
also appropriate to present more-targeted promotions at this stage if you can identify customers via
cookies—a technique pioneered by Amazon, which uses targeted promotions on its home page. Try
experimenting with different campaign-based offers. For example, present all visitors who have
abandoned a shopping cart in the last month with the item(s) from that shopping cart session or
spotlight reviews of popular products written by customers in the same user profile or segment.
•
Algorithmic merchandising. Your reasons for using this approach may be similar to your reasons
for using the campaign-based approach. Setting aside a small zone on the home page and using it to
deliver a personalized piece of content (such as a personalized image) or a personalized promotion
(“We think you’d enjoy these items…”) is a way to provoke an impulse purchase and drive an
immediate sale. As long as it’s easy for the visitor to bypass these promotions and get deeper into
your site, you have little to lose and a great potential gain.
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Four Tips for Effective Online Merchandising
•
Contextual merchandising. This approach can be effective from an operational standpoint. On
the home page, contextual benefits can’t be fully utilized, however, because the customer has yet to
execute an action, but data-driven promotion rules make it easy to automate the presentation of
“top-sellers” and “inventory clearance” items.
Test and Monitor Your Approach
No one merchandising technology has a clear advantage on the home page. Campaign-based or
algorithm-driven merchandising on a portion of the page can be effective, but you need to test and
monitor customer reactions. Keep this page focused on promoting high-value items and pushing
visitors deeper into the site.
Tip 2: Convert with Context on Search Pages
On search result pages, the conversation between shoppers and retailers begins: shoppers indicate their
needs via keyword search or filter selection, and retailers seek to present the best matches. This is
where you have a chance to engage customers with contextual targeting. For example, if a customer
searches on digital cameras, the retailer will return all relevant results but also summarize the next options
available for filtering these results—such as megapixel options, user rating, color, and amount of
memory. As the customer selects different filters and narrows the choices, valuable information is
being provided to the retailer about the customer’s current need—regardless of previous search
behavior or what other customers with a similar demographic profile have purchased.
•
Campaign-based merchandising. This approach is relatively ineffective on search pages, because
campaign-based promotions are tied to customers’ profiles, not to the path each customer takes
through the site. And as customers drill down deeper into search results, selecting multiple filters,
discrepancies will arise between the predetermined promotions being served and what the customers
have indicated as their needs. For example, the customer conducting the search above may have
selected as filters 8 megapixels, 4 GB memory, and $400 - $600 price range, only to be presented with a
promotion for pink 5-megapixel camera phones for $150 because she falls into the campaigntargeted segment of females age 17 to 25 years who are cost-conscious.
The exception is when a search term can be used to define a segment. For example, a campaign can
be set to serve a promotion to all men who have made more than three purchases this month and
who enter the search term shirt. The downside of this approach is that, to stay relevant, a different
promotion needs to be configured for every search term and for every filter applied. This becomes a
nearly impossible task, given the infinite number of paths a customer can take and the infinite
number of campaigns that must be configured.
•
Algorithmic merchandising. This approach has shortcomings similar to those of campaign-based
merchandising. Further, algorithms are most commonly focused on a single part of the Web page, so
it is essential that merchants consider recommendations in the context of the full-page—and site—
experience the customer will encounter.
•
Contextual merchandising. This is the most effective approach for search and navigation pages.
Because contextual targeting dynamically changes promotions in response to a customer’s actions
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Four Tips for Effective Online Merchandising
and exact location on your site, content will always be relevant. This automatic triggering of
promotions means that marketers don’t need to manually configure promotions for every possible
term and filter selection. Instead, they can set one rule (such as “Spotlight the highest-margin
product from the result set”) to fire on all search and navigation pages, and the resulting promotion
will always be relevant to the customer’s intent—no matter what is selected or where the customer is
within your site.
To improve the effectiveness of contextual targeting, retailers should provide an opportunity for
shoppers to classify themselves and their shopping preferences (with indications such as “I’m priceconscious” or “I want to know what other customers bought”) to assist with profile-building and to
determine what will resonate with customers. Figure 1 shows a Web page from the Website of
Kiddicare, a company that employs these contextual targeting techniques.
Figure 1. A pop-up window on the kiddicare.com search page asks visitors to indicate likely needs by checkmarking
answers under topics such as “Who Am I” (such as “Parent of 2 children” or “Grandparent”) and “Best Uses” (such as
“Toddlers” or “Infants”).
Contextual merchandising delivers the most-effective promotions on search and navigation pages.
Consider campaign-based merchandising for top search terms, but be wary of placing and managing
these deeper in the site.
Promotions That Convert to the Sale
If your merchandising strategy is focused on increasing the conversion of visitors into buyers, consider
some of these simple promotions for the search or category-browse state:
•
Top-selling product
•
Top-rated product
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Four Tips for Effective Online Merchandising
•
Most liked product
•
Top-rated product according to customers with a similar profile
•
Top-rated product according to your Facebook friends
•
How-to videos
•
Buying guides
•
Most helpful review
•
Related articles
Tip 3: Build Confidence on Category Browse Pages
Together with search pages, category browse pages are among the primary options available to
customers as a means of finding products on your site. These are the pages that match your product
taxonomy at the highest levels (including category and subcategory) before branching into nodes based
on product attributes. In many ways, these pages are just like the search experience—each click on a
category, subcategory, or attribute indicates what the customer is interested in right now, regardless of
past behavior. As a result, the same conclusions apply, with a few caveats in favor of campaign-based
and algorithmic approaches.
Keep Category Promotions in Context
•
Campaign-based merchandising. Both of these methods risk becoming less relevant, the deeper a
customer travels into the site. It is reasonable for marketers to focus on a limited number of category
pages to manually manage campaign-based merchandising, if they do it correctly—such as when they
use both past behavior and the category selection to trigger an effective personalized promotion.
However, beyond the top few nodes in the site structure, managing and maintaining this method
across all taxonomy and attribute-driven pages becomes unrealistic.
•
Contextual merchandising. This approach is always relevant to the customer’s needs, from
accessing the top-level category page to accessing a product details page. The rationale for using
contextual merchandising on category pages is the same as for using it on search pages. Because it is
tied to the customer’s actions and exact location within the site, it is always relevant. In addition, the
marketer needs to configure a rule only once to dynamically drive targeted merchandising across
pages, making it simple to manage.
Consider campaign-based merchandising in select instances for the top pages in your category structure, but don’t risk irrelevant
promotions deeper in the site.
Consider campaign-based merchandising in select instances for the top pages in your category
structure, but don’t risk irrelevant promotions deeper in the site. Consider merchandising zones that
feature related information such as buyer’s guides and how-to videos that can increase a browser’s
confidence in making a purchase.
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Four Tips for Effective Online Merchandising
Figure 2. The category pages on Homedepot.com, such as this one for ceiling fans, promote buying guides and how-to
videos to build purchase confidence.
Tip 4: Profile and Personalize on Product Detail Pages
Shoppers who arrive at a product detail page are signaling that they are close to making a purchase
decision. They are deep into the site, have narrowed their choices, and are now carefully reviewing
products that they believe are good options. Here they want to confirm that a product is truly a good
fit for their needs. Meeting this expectation is challenging, because building confidence in purchasing
goods is historically a sensory experience—with the customer handling items, asking questions, and
comparing products side-by-side and in person. Because they can’t offer an in-person experience,
e-tailers compensate by featuring detailed product descriptions, photos, videos, how-to guides, and
peer reviews on these pages to replicate the in-person data-gathering experience. This often isn’t
enough to push items into the shopping cart, but a well-placed promotion can be the catalyst.
•
Campaign-based merchandising. This approach is not typically the best on product detail pages,
because its strength is in matching a promotion with the needs and interests of a large segment of
customers. Once a customer reaches the product detail page, it is clear what that person desires,
regardless of the segment the customer falls into. However, don’t disregard campaign-based
promotions completely. A campaign targeted to all customers but featuring rule-driven promotions
tied to the product can be effective. For example, a marketer can spotlight recently viewed products
for a quick comparison, promote available pricing bundles that include this item, display related
accessories, or mention how many more items need to be added to the shopping cart to qualify for
free shipping. These basic promotions, which vary by product rather than audience, can be effective
in converting interactions to sales or in giving customers the incentive to purchase more.
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Four Tips for Effective Online Merchandising
•
Algorithmic merchandising. This is a strong approach for converting to sale and up-selling
customers from product detail pages. Once a customer has narrowed the selection to a single
product, the algorithm creates highly effective promotions that can close the sale with personalized
content. Most algorithm-based technologies can easily identify all similar customers who have
viewed this product detail page and can present promotions with messages such as “Similar
customers viewing this item also viewed this” or “Customers who bought this item also bought
this.” This level of personalization, relevant to both the product and the person viewing it, can be
very effective in converting interactions to sales and in increasing order sizes.
Figure 3. Bluefly.com features “most wanted” and “you might also like to shop for” suggestions on its product detail
pages to drive up-sells and higher order values.
•
Contextual merchandising. This approach does not deliver the same impact as personalized
algorithm-driven promotions on product detail pages, but it offers a great way to automate the
delivery of relevant promotions related to the product. For example, if the data is available, a
contextual merchandising rule can be created to promote items such as the top accessory for the
item or the top five reviews for that item. In other words, a rule can be created that brings back any
content relevant to that stock-keeping unit (SKU)—even if that means a result set of 1. For retailers
already using contextual merchandising on their Websites, an easy way to extend the value down to
product detail pages is to automate cross-sells and conversion-lifting product spotlights.
A personalized, algorithm-driven promotion derived from a customer’s profile and buying history in addition to the product viewed
is very compelling on product detail pages.
A personalized, algorithm-driven promotion derived from a customer’s profile and buying history in
addition to the product viewed is very compelling on product detail pages. However, if you already use
campaign-based and contextual merchandising, investigate ways to extend these methods to the
product detail pages so that you can further increase conversions and order sizes.
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Four Tips for Effective Online Merchandising
Conclusion
The best retailers recognize that the most-effective online merchandising techniques are uniquely
targeted to each customer, based on that person’s needs at that moment. They also understand that
their knowledge of customers and their needs fluctuates widely during any given shopping session. To
maximize the effectiveness of your online merchandising, understand the strengths and weaknesses of
each type of merchandising approach so that you can make an informed choice about which method is
most appropriate in different areas of your Website. If you choose well, your organization will
maximize the value of every customer visit and outperform any single black box approach your
competitors adopt.
Contact Us
For more information about Oracle Endeca Web commerce solutions, visit oracle.com/webcommerce
or call +1.800.ORACLE1 to speak to an Oracle representative.
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Four Tips for Effective Online Merchandising:
Copyright © 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is provided for information purposes only and the
Strategies for Boosting Conversion Rates
contents hereof are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor subject to any other
warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchantability or
February 2012
Authors: Brenna Johnson and John Andrews
Oracle Corporation
fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document and no contractual obligations are
formed either directly or indirectly by this document. This document may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
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